The Meditations - Chapter 1

The Meditations - Audiobook

This episode presents the first chapter of 'The Meditations,' a profound reflection on the moral and character development of the narrator.

Key takeaways

• Learned good morals and temperance from grandfather Verus.
• Acquired modesty and manly character through his father's reputation.

Main topics

• Moral formation
• Stoic virtues

Notable quotes

From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper.

Conclusion

The chapter provides a blueprint for character building through the ob

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:21) CHAPTER I. From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper. two from the reputation and remembrance of my father modesty and a manly character three for my mother piety and beneficence and abstinence not only from evil deeds but even from evil thoughts and further simplicity in my way of living far removed from the habits of the rich four for my great-grandfather not to have frequented public schools and to have had good teachers at home and to know that on such things a man should spend liberally v for my governor to be neither of the green nor of the blue party at the games and the circus nor a partisan either of the parmularius or the scutarius at the gladiators fights from him too i learned endurance of labour and to want little and to work with my own hands and not to meddle with other people's affairs and not to be ready to listen to slander six from dignatus not to busy myself about trifling things and not to give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers about incantations and the driving away of demons and such things and not to breed quails for fighting nor to give myself up passionately to such things and to endure freedom of speech and to have become intimate with philosophy and to have been a hearer first of bacchius then of tandassus and marcianus and to have written dialogues in my youth and to have desired a plank bed and skin and whatever else of the kind belongs to the grecian discipline from rusticus i received the impression that my character required improvement and discipline and from him i learned not to be led astray to sophistic emulation nor to writing on speculative matters nor to delivering little oratory orations nor to showing myself off as a man who practises much discipline or does benevolent acts in order to make a display and to abstain from rhetoric and poetry and fine writing and not to walk about in the house in my outdoor dress nor to do other things of the kind and to write my letters with simplicity like the letter which rusticus wrote from sinuisa to my mother and with respect to those who have offended me by words or done me wrong to be easily disposed to be pacified and reconciled as soon as they have shown a readiness to be reconciled and to read carefully and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book nor hastily to give my assent to those who talk overmuch and i am indebted to him for being acquainted with the discourses of epictetus which he communicated to me out of his own collection Speaker 1 (3:03) eight from apollonius i learned freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose and to look to nothing else not even for a moment except to reason and to be always the same in sharp pains on the occasion of the loss of a child and in long illness and to see clearly in a living example that the same man can be both most resolute and yielding and not peevish in giving his instruction and to have had before my eyes a man who clearly considered his experience and his skill in expounding philosophical principles as the smallest of his merits and from him i learned how to receive from friends what are esteemed favours without being either humbled by them or letting them pass unnoticed Speaker 1 (3:46) from sextus a benevolent disposition and the example of a family governed in a fatherly manner and the idea of living conformably to nature and gravity without affectation and to look carefully after the interests of friends and to tolerate ignorant persons and those who form opinions without consideration he had the power of readily accommodating himself to all so that intercourse with him was more agreeable than any flattery and at the same time he was most highly venerated by those who associated with him and he had the faculty both of discovering and ordering in an intelligent and methodical way the principles necessary for life and he never showed anger or any